The First Scare

Horror Films as a Modern Rite of Passage

Ask someone about the first horror movie they ever watched. You’ll usually get the title immediately, and often a story to go with it.

“My older cousin made me watch The Exorcist. I couldn’t sleep for days.”

“We snuck a copy of The Ring into a sleepover. I think we all cried.”

“It was Jaws with my dad. I didn’t swim in the ocean for five years.”

Your first horror movie can be a formative experience. You're told it will be scary, you brace yourself, and you endure it. Afterwards, you talk about it, laugh about it, and come out the other side a little bit changed. Sometimes a little bit (mentally) tougher. Sometimes a little more bonded to the people who watched it with you. Always remembering it.

Many people watch their first scary movie around the beginning of adolescence, which is sort of a weird developmental period. You can’t yet do adult things like drive or vote, but you’re not quite a kid anymore.